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The Spectrum and ZX81 are (rightly) the computers for which Clive Sinclair is remembered. But it was his unsuccessful follow-up, the QL, which inspired a certai

The Spectrum and ZX81 are (rightly) the computers for which Clive Sinclair is remembered. But it was his unsuccessful follow-up, the QL, which inspired a certain Linus Torvalds to write Linux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL#Legacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_QL#Legacy

ukd1 5y ago
The QL was one of my first computers too, I loved that thing!
- TacticalCoder 5y ago
  And it was an incredibly slick looking machine for the time!
  - TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
    After the first couple of biscuit-tin amplifiers and some bare board products like the Mk14, design became a Sinclair USP. He was a kind of proto-Jobs. While most of the competition made boring-looking devices, Sinclair hired some of the top people for the time and made products that stood out because they looked exciting. The ZX series are the best known, but there were precursors like the Black Watch and the Sovereign Calculator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch_(wristwatch) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch_(wristwatch) http://www.vintagebritishcalculators.info/html/sovereign.html http://www.vintagebritishcalculators.info/html/sovereign.htm... He wasn't so good at making things that worked reliably or delivering them on time, but even with the delays the ZX comps were game changers.
    - rcarmo 5y ago
      My dad had a black watch. It was the stuff of Sci-Fi.
  - elevaet 5y ago
    Great cyberpunk aesthetic! http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sinclair-ql/3347 http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sinclair-ql/3347
xkeysc0re 5y ago
Funny that it was inspiring in its frustrating designs / lack of features, rather than a "positive" sort of inspiration.
- 5faulker 5y ago
  Failure can be a source of inspiration, after all.
  - hughrr 5y ago
    Sinclair was an expert at that. He guided many an industrial product designer to fortune by showing them exactly what not to do.
    - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
      I can't tell - are you praising Sinclair, or shredding him? (I'm on the wrong side of the pond to have any real knowledge of him.)
      - hughrr 5y ago
        Shredding him. His business acumen was nil and his cost cutting nailed shut the coffin of every venture he started. I don’t get the hero worship.
        disgruntledphd2 5y ago
        Dude, he's just died. There's definitely a time for robust debate about his legacy and potential flaws, but that time and place should not be this thread.
        hughrr 5y ago
        Yeah it is. The guy had a rabid cult following much like Musk does today. He had many financial victims with poorly engineered products. He made a very valuable contribution to the industry however. People have rose tinted glasses about it but the reality was products not turning up, not shipping, not working and a sour taste for many against technology. He even bought faulty RAM in which was discarded for the Spectrums and sold the ones that booted. The only reason it worked out for a lot of people is we have pretty strong consumer protection laws here!
sedatk 5y ago
Reading QL BASIC source code was the first time I was exposed to structured programming. I really liked its BASIC dialect.
jhallenworld 5y ago
Has anyone ported ucLinux to the QL? Shouldn't be that hard.. here it is on a minimal system: https://www.bigmessowires.com/68-katy/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/68-katy/
dboreham 5y ago
MK14 here.
afavour 5y ago
Oh wow, it turns out the QL hardware was reused in the ICL One Per Desk. We had one at home growing up (for some reason?!). Kind of funny to read that it's greatest success was in networking hundreds of bingo halls together across the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk
- RantyDave 5y ago
  The QL failed because (amongst other things) they had outsourced the basic interpreter to another company for the ZX series and decided to bring it in house for the QL :(
  - DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
    I attribute the decline of the UK’s domestic computer industry (including Acorn) to the scene as-a-whole being either uninterested or unwilling to embrace PC-compatibility. Had they done that, I think they could have secured better distribution deals, especially in education, but eve more-so overseas. What if Sinclair, Amstrad, and Acorn were able to establish themselves as a third-way (like Amiga and Be almost did) alternative to both IBM PCs and Apple Macintosh? I know that being PC-compatible would automatically make them commodity, but if they had positioned themselves as a value-added “PC+” platform and focused on competing in areas where PC clones at-the-time sucked and alternatives like Amiga reigned (e.g. Video Toaster), could they have succeeded? What if they merged with Quantel and made their Paintbox more affordable sooner? That would have taken the wind out of Adobe’s Photoshop sails. ——— I feel the UK computing scene suffered from a lack-of-ambition. The world is too small for each medium-sized country to have their own computer-makers, so it’s important to go-big early and establish footholds in all the major markets - which isn’t something anyone in the UK except ARM (and to an extent: Sinclair) has done.
    - setpatchaddress 5y ago
      Various people tried the PC+ scheme in the US and had limited success. Tandy probably came closest. Sinclair and Acorn were extremely ambitious. Acorn even sold an NTSC conversion of the BBC Micro in the US for a short time. My theory is they were undercapitalized.
foldr 5y ago
My Dad had a QL at home and even had a small business selling software for it back in the day. It was a bit of a daunting machine for me as a child (I got more mileage out of the BBC Micro), but I have fond memories of playing around with it, and loading games off of microdrives.
- foldr 5y ago
  You can see the ad for his software on the top left of page 35: https://sinclairql.speccy.org/archivo/docs/mags/QLWorld_1986-10.pdf https://sinclairql.speccy.org/archivo/docs/mags/QLWorld_1986...
123pie123 5y ago
Whilst my first programs was on the acorn atom, Zx80 and zx81 the zx spectrum hold a special place in my memory because the manual was fantasic - I learnt almost everything from it. and then progressed on to typing the monterous (using the aweful rubber keys) blocks of programs from magazines - THEN I learnt how to debug and rewrite the games that I'd just typed in from the magazines, because they never worked first time. but it felt like I was living in the future Thanks Clive - RIP
- Wildgoose 5y ago
  I still have my Acorn Atom from Christmas 1980. The user manual "Atomic Theory and Practise" was an amazingly good introduction to computers, and is still on the shelf above my desk.
  - lixtra 5y ago
    For those who want to very this claim: https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/atap/ https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/atap/
    - Wildgoose 5y ago
      Ooh, thanks!
Zardoz84 5y ago
I have memories of my father using a QL. also, he was very lucky as he got a late version with many bugs fixed. He like it too, that when got a IBM PC compatible with a 8086, he thought that the QL was better.
thinkingemote 5y ago
Did you have one? I skipped the QL and went to an Amiga
mzs 5y ago
Sir Clive was in a memorable QL ad as well: https://youtu.be/as6hSAqJ_g4 https://youtu.be/as6hSAqJ_g4

ukd1 5y ago

The QL was one of my first computers too, I loved that thing!

TacticalCoder 5y ago
And it was an incredibly slick looking machine for the time!
- TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
  After the first couple of biscuit-tin amplifiers and some bare board products like the Mk14, design became a Sinclair USP. He was a kind of proto-Jobs. While most of the competition made boring-looking devices, Sinclair hired some of the top people for the time and made products that stood out because they looked exciting. The ZX series are the best known, but there were precursors like the Black Watch and the Sovereign Calculator. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch_(wristwatch) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Watch_(wristwatch) http://www.vintagebritishcalculators.info/html/sovereign.html http://www.vintagebritishcalculators.info/html/sovereign.htm... He wasn't so good at making things that worked reliably or delivering them on time, but even with the delays the ZX comps were game changers.
  - rcarmo 5y ago
    My dad had a black watch. It was the stuff of Sci-Fi.
- elevaet 5y ago
  Great cyberpunk aesthetic! http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sinclair-ql/3347 http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sinclair-ql/3347

xkeysc0re 5y ago

Funny that it was inspiring in its frustrating designs / lack of features, rather than a "positive" sort of inspiration.

5faulker 5y ago
Failure can be a source of inspiration, after all.
- hughrr 5y ago
  Sinclair was an expert at that. He guided many an industrial product designer to fortune by showing them exactly what not to do.
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    I can't tell - are you praising Sinclair, or shredding him? (I'm on the wrong side of the pond to have any real knowledge of him.)
    - hughrr 5y ago
      Shredding him. His business acumen was nil and his cost cutting nailed shut the coffin of every venture he started. I don’t get the hero worship.
      - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
        Dude, he's just died. There's definitely a time for robust debate about his legacy and potential flaws, but that time and place should not be this thread.
        hughrr 5y ago
        Yeah it is. The guy had a rabid cult following much like Musk does today. He had many financial victims with poorly engineered products. He made a very valuable contribution to the industry however. People have rose tinted glasses about it but the reality was products not turning up, not shipping, not working and a sour taste for many against technology. He even bought faulty RAM in which was discarded for the Spectrums and sold the ones that booted. The only reason it worked out for a lot of people is we have pretty strong consumer protection laws here!

sedatk 5y ago

Reading QL BASIC source code was the first time I was exposed to structured programming. I really liked its BASIC dialect.

jhallenworld 5y ago

Has anyone ported ucLinux to the QL? Shouldn't be that hard.. here it is on a minimal system: https://www.bigmessowires.com/68-katy/ https://www.bigmessowires.com/68-katy/

dboreham 5y ago

MK14 here.

afavour 5y ago

Oh wow, it turns out the QL hardware was reused in the ICL One Per Desk. We had one at home growing up (for some reason?!). Kind of funny to read that it's greatest success was in networking hundreds of bingo halls together across the UK. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk

RantyDave 5y ago
The QL failed because (amongst other things) they had outsourced the basic interpreter to another company for the ZX series and decided to bring it in house for the QL :(
- DaiPlusPlus 5y ago
  I attribute the decline of the UK’s domestic computer industry (including Acorn) to the scene as-a-whole being either uninterested or unwilling to embrace PC-compatibility. Had they done that, I think they could have secured better distribution deals, especially in education, but eve more-so overseas. What if Sinclair, Amstrad, and Acorn were able to establish themselves as a third-way (like Amiga and Be almost did) alternative to both IBM PCs and Apple Macintosh? I know that being PC-compatible would automatically make them commodity, but if they had positioned themselves as a value-added “PC+” platform and focused on competing in areas where PC clones at-the-time sucked and alternatives like Amiga reigned (e.g. Video Toaster), could they have succeeded? What if they merged with Quantel and made their Paintbox more affordable sooner? That would have taken the wind out of Adobe’s Photoshop sails. ——— I feel the UK computing scene suffered from a lack-of-ambition. The world is too small for each medium-sized country to have their own computer-makers, so it’s important to go-big early and establish footholds in all the major markets - which isn’t something anyone in the UK except ARM (and to an extent: Sinclair) has done.
  - setpatchaddress 5y ago
    Various people tried the PC+ scheme in the US and had limited success. Tandy probably came closest. Sinclair and Acorn were extremely ambitious. Acorn even sold an NTSC conversion of the BBC Micro in the US for a short time. My theory is they were undercapitalized.

foldr 5y ago

My Dad had a QL at home and even had a small business selling software for it back in the day. It was a bit of a daunting machine for me as a child (I got more mileage out of the BBC Micro), but I have fond memories of playing around with it, and loading games off of microdrives.

foldr 5y ago
You can see the ad for his software on the top left of page 35: https://sinclairql.speccy.org/archivo/docs/mags/QLWorld_1986-10.pdf https://sinclairql.speccy.org/archivo/docs/mags/QLWorld_1986...

123pie123 5y ago

Whilst my first programs was on the acorn atom, Zx80 and zx81 the zx spectrum hold a special place in my memory because the manual was fantasic - I learnt almost everything from it. and then progressed on to typing the monterous (using the aweful rubber keys) blocks of programs from magazines - THEN I learnt how to debug and rewrite the games that I'd just typed in from the magazines, because they never worked first time. but it felt like I was living in the future Thanks Clive - RIP

Wildgoose 5y ago
I still have my Acorn Atom from Christmas 1980. The user manual "Atomic Theory and Practise" was an amazingly good introduction to computers, and is still on the shelf above my desk.
- lixtra 5y ago
  For those who want to very this claim: https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/atap/ https://fjkraan.home.xs4all.nl/comp/atom/atap/
  - Wildgoose 5y ago
    Ooh, thanks!

Zardoz84 5y ago

I have memories of my father using a QL. also, he was very lucky as he got a late version with many bugs fixed. He like it too, that when got a IBM PC compatible with a 8086, he thought that the QL was better.

thinkingemote 5y ago

Did you have one? I skipped the QL and went to an Amiga

mzs 5y ago

Sir Clive was in a memorable QL ad as well: https://youtu.be/as6hSAqJ_g4 https://youtu.be/as6hSAqJ_g4